The present invention relates generally to portable IR thermometers. More particularly, the invention relates to a portable IR thermometer having thermal imaging capability.
Portable infrared (IR) thermometers allow a user to ascertain the temperature of a remote target using a point and click technique. These instruments are commonly utilized for purposes ranging from automotive diagnostics to food safety. Often, these devices will use a single thermopile element at which the thermal energy is focused to ascertain the temperature at the aim point. In order to determine the aim point, the thermometers may be equipped with a laser pointer that emits a laser beam in the forward direction. Various details regarding the construction and operation of noncontact thermometers may be discerned from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,634,294, 5,640,015 and 6,234,669, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
In contrast to a thermometer, thermal imaging cameras are used to create a high quality thermal image of a scene (such as an industrial machine being inspected for predictive maintenance). These cameras typically use a microbolometer array of at least 160×120 pixels to generate the thermal scene. As known in the art, both the microbolometer arrays and the cameras in which they are used are relatively expensive. Therefore, they may be undesirable for many applications in which a more economical noncontact thermometer would be sufficient.